eli5: How can handwriting analysis be useful in solving a case? Can’t the suspect simply switch up their writing style when under scrutiny?
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Like many areas of forensic science, it’s a little unclear how valid it really is. Forensic scientists tend to be under a certain amount of pressure to produce evidence that supports a particular verdict, and lawyers have a strong incentive to emphasize and exaggerate evidence that seems to support their case, and downplay evidence that doesn’t, without sincerely questioning how valid it is. There have been some studies (e.g. [here](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2119944119)) that have tested handwriting analysts and found that they are often reasonably accurate, but it’s very difficult to recreate the conditions of a real crime. You can instruct a participant in a study to try and copy someone else’s handwriting, but are they going to be as good as an experienced forger whose freedom is on the line? And is a forensic expert going to behave the same in a scientific study as they would in a criminal case?
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